Tag: “other”

Emotions are running high since our president-elect has been announced! There have been protests in various cities, walkouts of high school and college students and new Facebook pages organized around this. No one can stay objective to the values of others when their emotions are high because it evokes the “fight or flight” response. When this happens our capacity to hold multiple perspectives becomes narrower as we have less access to our neocortex while the amygdala is in command. (http://bit.ly/2cRGlzm) I don’t blame anyone for expressing their authentic emotions and personal truths. However, in order to do a better job of forecasting as a Futurist, it’s much easier if we don’t make someone unlike ourselves the “other.” And, if we can objectively observe values, then we can forecast future behavior more accurately.

On September 11, 2011, I wrote a blog on the “other” ( http://bit.ly/2geFmg9). In it, I reminded folks that Integral promotes all perspectives because they may have partial truths. Furthermore, if there is a strong reaction to something, then it should at least be explored for “shadow” issues that need to be healed and integrated into our whole consciousness. The value in this integration is, so that we have a better chance of controlling these issues instead of them controlling us. Every good futurist has a responsibility to explore their blind spots for questionable assumptions.

I was disappointed when Trump won the election. Hubby and I both caucused for Bernie as he comes closer than any other candidate to our personal values. Since he lost the primary, we got behind Hilary, but I told hubby and my Trump friends that I thought Trump had a good chance because I know the center of gravity values in this big beautiful country of ours is closer to Trump than Hilary. However, since the popular vote went with Hilary, it gives me hope the values of the country are going in the direction of more inclusion and pluralism. (http://spiraldynamics.org/faq-basics/ ).

If you know the values within a group or individual, it is easier to assess what their behavior will be in the future. While our new president-elect is certainly difficult to pin down where his authentic values are, I personally am going to try to take the high road, stay calm, and give him 100 days to see if he may be a better president than anticipated! How about you?